Ema Katrovas is an opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer, translator, and an aspiring artist-researcher.

She was performer and/or co-creator in interdisciplinary projects for the Prague City Gallery and the Czech National Monument of Literature. She has appeared as a classical concert soloist at, among others, the new music series of the PKF-Prague Philharmonia and the Schubert Club in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most recently, she was able to present her interdisciplinary performances and installation in France, at the POTE festival in Besançon, the Absence festival in Paris, and the What’Sup festival at the CNSMD in Lyon. Her formative performance years were as a soloist in opera productions at the F.X. Šalda Theater in Liberec and the Silesian Theater in Opava, among others.

A book of her translations into English of the works of Czech poet Pavel Šrut came out under the title Paper Shoes with Carnegie Mellon University Press (2009). She also published translations of two short stories by Bohumil Hrabal in literary journals (Hayden’s Ferry Review, 2010, and the now defunct Calque, 2009). Her own short story came out in Redivider Journal in 2019. For over a decade, she has also translated for film, theatre, and art galleries, notably for HBO or the Nutprodukce production company.

She grew up in Prague, Czech Republic, and New Orleans, United States. She spent every summer since she can remember being around (as a child), working for (as a teen) and coordinating (in her 20s) the Prague Summer Program for Writers. This portrait of Ema’s father by Alan Levy explains the origin’s of Ema’s Czech-American family.

She has a Master’s in classical voice from the Academy of Performing Artist in Prague. She is currently based in Lyon, France, where she is working on an Artist Diploma-CréationS at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon.

For full artistic profile visit www.emakatrovas.com